Talent
by ebonbon
Summary: Follow the next generation Potters on their quest to achieve their dream, playing Quidditch. One new character, other than that it is Epilogue compliant. T because I'm paranoid. R&R
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I gave Harry a fourth child in this story, Remus Ronald Potter. The other kids are still the same. Right now James is 11, Albus is 10, Remus is 9, and Lily is 8. I usually hate to mess with J.K. Rowling's world but it fit better in this story. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter. J.K does.

James Potter was lying on the roof of his house staring at the stars. He came up here often just to look at them. He could tell you all the constellations and point them out. They had always fascinated him. He knew that someday, he would go up into space and see one up close. The Potters had a beautiful house. Well, it was more of a mansion then a house. The house itself was huge. It was an old Greek style building, but updated. The outside looked almost the same, just more structurally safe and it had a new paint job. But the inside was a modern luxury. It was a wonderful mix of the wizarding world and the Muggle world. James loved the land around it more though. They owned more than 500 acres. The area around the house was well manicured and always ready for guests, but a forest ringed the edge. James had gone exploring through the dense trees and found a clearing. That was where he and his siblings spent most of their time. The trees were plenty tall enough that they could play Quidditch.

A window opened beneath him. James sat straight up. The rest of his family had gone to bed hours before. He stood up; ready to defend himself against whatever creature had made its way up the building. Then a head popped up above the edge of the roof.

"Lily! What are you doing up here?" His eight year old sister pulled herself up to sit down on the roof. James sat down beside her.

"I couldn't sleep. I went to your room but you weren't there. I figured you were up here."

"You know me too well Lily," James said with a smile.

"Will you show me the constellations?" James smiled. Lily was just as fascinated with stars as he was.

"Of course." The two of them sat up there until three in the morning when James finally insisted that they go to bed. Lily didn't argue though. James walked her to her room. She had a hidden bedroom. The door looked like cabinets but when you opened them, there was a marble archway to her room. She absolutely adored it, and Harry, his father, thought that she would be safe in there should anyone unwelcome come. James tucked her in and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight Lily." She was already asleep. He chuckled and walked back to his room. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"Rise and shine James! Geez, it's 1 in the afternoon!" James rolled over in his bed and slowly opened his eyes. His mother was standing at his dresser putting his clothes away. He groaned and sat up.

"Lunch will be ready in about half an hour. Wash up and get dressed before you come down." James stood up and stretched. He walked over to his closet, pulled out a Chudley Cannons T-Shirt from his Uncle Ron and a pair of cargo shorts. His mother was walking out the door when she turned back.

"We'll be having a guest for lunch today so make sure you look presentable" She said with a smile. As she turned to walk back out, James called back to her, "Who's coming over? Uncle Neville was just here for dinner last night."

"Katie Wood. She is one of your dad's and my friends from Hogwarts. She's also-"

"-The captain of the British National Quidditch team!" James said, his eyes wide.

Ginny laughed. "Yes she is. Her husband, Oliver Wood used to play for-"

"Puddlemere United," James said breathlessly.

"Yes. Now, do you agree you must look presentable?"

James didn't even bother to answer as he ran across the hall to bathroom he shared with Albus. Luckily for Albus, he wasn't in there. James sprinted in and shut the door. He took a shower in record time and got dressed. He brushed his teeth and attempted to flatten his hair, but it didn't work so he settled for as messy as possible, while still looking amazing of course. Then he realized he was wearing a Chudley Cannons shirt and sprinted to his room to find one of his Puddlemere United shirts instead. He looked in the mirror on his closet door and was satisfied. He casually walked downstairs to the kitchen. His whole family was there already. He looked at the clock, it said 1:46.

"That has to be some kind of record," James said with a smirk.

"Yes, because it's a good thing to have to rush so fast you leave the water running in the sink." Albus said with a playful glare.

"Whoops," James said, but he didn't really care. He was about to have lunch with two famous Quidditch players. He had of course seen them at parties his parents had hosted, but he had never actually gotten to talk to them before. "Why are Katie and Oliver coming?" He asked, realizing he had no idea.

"Katie wanted to talk to your Dad about something, so I invited her over for lunch." Ginny said, tossing the salad.

"What did she want to talk to Dad about?" He said relentlessly.

"I guess you'll find out at lunch." His mom said with a smirk.

James glared at her but he knew he wasn't going to get anything out of her. James' dream had always been to play on the national Quidditch team. He knew it wouldn't be too hard for him when he got out of Hogwarts because the British team was terrible. Katie was the only good player on the team. At the World Cup last year, Britain had lost their first game by 260 points. Katie had been the only person to score a goal. James was determined to get on that team to restore a little glory to their country. He was a seeker and an amazing one too. His mother had created a youth Quidditch league for all the kids to play in before they got to Hogwarts. James had played on the top 10 year old team (the highest age group) when he was 6. He had never lost a match before and had never failed to catch the snitch.

Ashley Spinnet was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she had come to watch several of his games to see his talent. Gryffindor was in bad need of a seeker. He was eleven now and she told him that he already had a spot on the team in a month when he would go to Hogwarts. She had graduated already but she had told the team to make sure whoever was captain the next year would put him on the team.

The door bell rang, pulling James out of his memories. "I'LL GET IT!" James shouted and sprinted over to the front door. Albus laughed, but he was just as excited as James. He was a keeper like Oliver and he desperately wanted to ask him to come outside and teach him a few moves.

James stopped running right before the door, took a deep breath, smiled, and opened the door. Katie and Oliver Wood were standing there smiling. "Hi," he said,"I'm James." He swung the door open for them to step inside. Katie was wearing dark blue ruffled skirt with a v-neck shirt that said Britain on it with golden broomsticks dotting the red fabric. Oliver was wearing dark jeans with a Gryffindor Keeper shirt on top. "Hi James." Katie said with a smile, "It's nice to finally meet you." Oliver shook his hand and winked at him. James started immediately trying to figure out why he winked at him.

He led them into the kitchen where Harry and Ginny introduced them to Al, Remus, and Lily. They sat down to the lunch his mom had made, turkey sandwiches and chicken caesar salad. In the beginning of lunch, it was just the adults talking and catching up. James and the other kids didn't pay very much attention until the talk turned to Quidditch. They talked about Katie's last season, to her disappointment, Oliver's decision to stop playing (too old), and the future of the national team. James ears perked up and started paying closer attention.

"So, what are your plans for next years' season?" Harry asked.

"Well, we just lost our seeker about a week ago. He had an accident." Katie said.

"What kind of accident?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Oh he tried to fly home and ran into a muggle airplane. He fell off his broom about five-thousand feet. Luckily, a witch happened to see him falling and slowed his fall. He's still in St. Mungo's though, he broke about half the bones in his body. He won't be playing Quidditch ever again. Not that I would want him to if he can't see an airplane coming directly toward him. No wonder he never once caught the Snitch in a game." Everyone laughed. James felt bad for the seeker but he couldn't help get excited. If only he was a little older…

"Hey Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?" Katie asked.

"Yeah, sure." Harry said and he led her out to the back porch and shut the glass door, flicking his wand so they couldn't see them through the window (mainly for the kids' benefit).

Remus was sitting next to James and he leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Do you think she wants Dad to come play for them?" James heart fell. Of course she wanted to ask his dad. Harry was a fantastic Quidditch player and Katie knew him from school. They were old friends. Still, he thought it might have been him. He should have known that he was too young. "Yeah, probably."

The glass door opened again and they walked back in to finish lunch. Harry looked over at his son, who was barely touching his food anymore and inwardly chuckled.

The Woods left about ten minutes later for a meeting. Katie was trying to get the Firebolt company to sponsor the team. They said their goodbyes and apparated away. James turned upstairs to go sulk in his room but Harry grabbed his shoulder. "James, can you come here a minute?"

James followed his dad to the north side of the house and into his office. "Sit down James."

James sat in the chair in front of his dad's desk. Harry walked behind his chair to look at a picture on the wall. He took it down and sat in his chair. James just stared out the window, looking at a robin hopping around on the grass.

"This is picture was taken during my third year. We had just beaten Ravenclaw for the Quidditch Cup." James looked at the picture on the desk. He realized that he looked a lot like his father. His dad was being held up by his teammates. He was clutching the Snitch in one hand and taking the cup from Dumbledore in the other. He saw Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione running in to the picture with a lot of his parents' other school friends. He looked up at his father, "Why are you showing me this?"

He looked up at his father, who was smiling. "Because I expect the same thing from you, only with a World Cup." James' eyes widened. "Wait… wh-…how-…what?" James stammered.

His father smiled. "You know when Katie asked to talk to me outside?" James nodded. "She asked me if I thought you would be willing to come and play for the British National Quidditch team. They are having tryouts the next three days and she wants you to come. You would have to beat out the others trying out of course, but she doubts there will be anyone there you can't beat." James sat there with his mouth open. "I told her I would send her an owl tonight to tell her if you were interested or not." He pulled a piece of parchment and a quill out of his desk. "What would you like me to say?"

James sat there for three long seconds taking it in. "YES! Oh my gosh! Wait, she seriously wants me?" He didn't wait for his dad to answer. "Yes! Oh, I have to go tell the others. Yes! I'm going to be the _best_ seeker at that tryout!" He jumped up, ran around the desk to hug his dad, who was laughing, then sprinted out of the room screaming at the top of his lungs, "ALBUS, REMUS, _LILY!_ Guess what!" Harry smiled and scrawled a note to Katie.

_Katie,_

_He said yes… many times. He is very excited for the opportunity. We'll be at the Hogwarts pitch at 8:30 tomorrow morning(you really need a new place to practice). See you then._

_Love,_

_Harry _


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter, J.K does.

James was convinced that this would be the best day of his life. He couldn't believe what was happening. He was actually trying out for the _National Quidditch_ team! He had immediately run and told his mother, who had beamed with pride but you could tell she already knew about it.

"MUM! I'm trying out for Katie's team! She invited me to tryouts! She- wait a second… You knew!" Ginny smirked.

"Katie told me when I interviewed her for the Daily Prophet. That's when I invited her over for dinner." Ginny was still smirking.

James was mad, however, he was too happy to really care at the moment. "I'm gonna get you for this!" He shouted and ran up the grand staircase to tell Al, Remus, and Lily.

Harry walked into the kitchen and kissed Ginny. "I'm so proud of him." He said, hugging her.

"So am I. I really hope he makes the team. I know him and he already thinks he will make it." Ginny said worriedly.

"He'll be fine," Harry said with a small smile.

That night for dinner, Ginny had made spaghetti with garlic bread, Lily's absolute favorite, and pumpkin pasties. They were all sitting around the table talking, mainly about James and the tryout when the family owl, Zeus, flew in the window with Ron and Hermione's response about James. Ginny grabbed the letter from Zeus and he flew to his perch.

"Ron says to kick some ass at the tryout." Ginny said with a smile. "Hermione says that it is an honor that you were even asked to tryout and she and the others are very proud of you."

"That would be how the two of them respond." Harry mumbled under his breath. James was sitting next to him and he sniggered.

"Hey," Ginny said with a warning glare. "That is very true." Her expression changed to a smile and Harry grinned.

They ate the rest of their dinner with casual conversation until finally everyone was finished. Ginny stood up and cleared the plates off the table. The rest of them stayed seated and Harry told them what Katie and Oliver were like at Hogwarts.

"Sorry James, I know you're curious about the Woods but you need to get to bed. Tryouts are early tomorrow morning and you will want to be as rested as you can." Ginny said.

"Mum, it is only 8:30."

"James, she's right. You need your sleep. By the time you actually get into your bed it will be about nine, and trust me, it will take awhile to fall asleep." Harry reasoned.

"I guess you're right."

"Yeah, now off to bed. You three should get some rest as well. Don't forget Lily, you're going over to Uncle Neville's tomorrow," said Ginny.

"True. Al, Remus, you guys should come with me. I'm helping Uncle Neville plant flowers in his garden. Hayley and Nathan are going to help too." Lily said.

"Wow, we have a lot of cousins." Remus said.

"You know Hayley and Nathan aren't our cousins. Neville is just a friend." Lily said with a frown.

"I know Lily, we just call so many people our 'cousins' that it's hard to keep it straight who is and who isn't." Remus said, rubbing his eyes. Harry chuckled.

"Sorry Remus, I can't help that I was so popular." Harry said with a wicked grin. Remus rolled his eyes at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Remus and the other three Potters walked up the grand marble staircase to get ready for bed. James walked to his room and grabbed his pajamas. He had just left his room when he saw Albus leaving his room for the bathroom as well. They looked at each other for a split second, then made a mad dash for the bathroom. They started wrestling at the door, trying to get in. Lily walked past and said, "Give me a break," and kept walking to her bathroom that she shared with Remus. James and Albus wrestled at the door every night. Finally, James shoved Albus to the floor, rushed in the door, and snapped it shut. Albus sat up for a second, groaned, and laid back down on the floor.

James decided to take his sweet time in the bathroom, like always. He even scrubbed the sink out just to waste time. When he finally opened the door he saw Albus was gone.

"Albus? I'm done now." He looked up and down the hallway but he didn't see him. He walked past his room to Albus' room next door. the door was open and Albus was sitting on his bed reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_. He was dressed in his pajamas and completely ready for bed.

"Hey Al, I'm done with the bathroom."

"Seriously? Just now? Geez James, you were taking forever so I just used Remus and Lily's. They were both finished. What could you have possibly been doing in there for 25 minutes?" Albus glared at James from his bed.

"Oh, well when I finished getting ready I cleaned both the sinks and the toilet. That's probably why." James grinned.

"Why? You hate housework…" Albus wore a baffled expression on his face.

"Yeah, but you hate waiting." James winked at his and turned to leave the room. "Night Al!"

"Good night, James." Albus said rolling his eyes.

James walked back to his room. He crawled into his bed, turned out his lamp, laid on his back. He closed his eyes, but as soon as he did he knew that sleep wasn't going to come easy tonight. He opened his eyes and looked around his room. His walls were Gryffindor red with a strip of gold around the top. As soon as he got to Hogwarts, assuming he was in Gryffindor, he would get Lily to paint red lions around the gold strip. He had asked for them when they first painted his room, but his mother had said they needed to wait until he actually made it into Gryffindor. He was confident he would be though. His whole family had been. The only thing that made his room stand out from Albus' and Remus' rooms, where the walls were identical, was his dark blue ceiling. His father had charmed his ceiling to show the stars above it. He had done the same to Lily's room. They both loved the sky so much that he had done it for a birthday present for both of them. It wasn't an exact replica of the sky, which was why he and Lily sometimes snuck out onto the roof, but it was close enough for tonight. He searched for constellations until he finally drifted off to sleep, dreaming about the next day.

The next morning, James woke up early. He rolled over, saw the time said 6:45, and went to go back to sleep again, but then he remembered what the day was. Tryouts. He sat up and stretched. He needed to be in top shape today. He grabbed the Chudley Cannons t-shirt he had meant to wear the day before, a pair of shorts, and a pair of socks. He slipped them on and tiptoed down the stairs. He went to the hall closet in the foyer and grabbed his running shoes. He walked across the sunken living room and slipped out the back door. He had measured the distance around the manicured portion of the plot and it was roughly 1 ½ kilometers. He jogged out to the edge of the trees and started to run. He had just finished his second lap around the house when his dad stuck his head out the door.

"James! If you want to be on time come inside and wash up."

James jogged back into the house. He sat down and had a quick breakfast of French toast and orange juice, then went upstairs to shower and change.

When he came back downstairs twenty minutes later his hair was still a little damp, but he was wearing freshly laundered dark blue Quidditch robes. They said Hogwarts Youth Quidditch on them in big gold letters, but he didn't really care. It wasn't like he could hide his age or anything. He was also carrying his most prized possession: his Firebolt Phoenix. It was the fastest broom in the world and it was specifically made for seekers. Hardly anyone could afford them, but Harry had got one for him on his eleventh birthday.

"Are you ready to go? It's about 8:15. We should be there a little early though." Harry said. He was dressed in dark jeans and a lightweight red Gryffindor sports jacket.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." James didn't show any signs of nerves, but inside he was a little freaked out.

"Here James," his mum handed him a small black fabric bag. He looked inside to see tons of food and water inside. "They don't get over until three o'clock, but they give you an hour for lunch so I packed some food. You can share with the others if there's extra." She bent down and kissed the top of his head. "Good luck, and be brave." He smiled at her and turned around to face his father.

"I'm ready," he said, half trying to convince himself.

Harry took his son's hand and spun on the spot. They disappeared with a crack and reappeared at the front gate of Hogwarts. Oliver was standing outside the gates with a bunch of name tags.

"Hey guys," he said. He handed James a name tag that said:

_James Potter_

_Seeker_

_Age 11_

It had little Snitched flying around the edge of the paper

"Katie wants to talk to everyone first. She's waiting in the Gryffindor team room for everybody."

"Am I late?" James asked. He couldn't be late. That would ruin everything. He almost started hyperventilating when he heard Oliver laugh.

"Nah man. You still have about ten minutes. Not everyone is here yet." Thank goodness.

James turned around to look at his dad. "Good luck, James. I know you will do amazing, it's in your blood." Harry said, with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, sure." James said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Do you know where the Gryffindor team room is?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, I've been in there a few times." He hugged his dad and said goodbye, then trudged up the hill to the Quidditch pitch.

A/N: Please let me know what you think! I've had this idea in my head for a long time so I need to know if I am getting it down right. R&R!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter… J.K does

James trudged up the path the Gryffindor team room by himself. He opened the door to the corridor around the pitch and walked down to the red and gold Gryffindor team room door. He put his hand on the handle, took a deep breath, and pushed it open. There were about 50 people in chairs surrounding a whiteboard. Katie was standing at the front of the room with a piece of parchment. She looked up and smiled at him.

"Hey James, there's a seat up here." She directed him to a seat in the middle of the front row. As he made his way up to his seat, heads turned to stare at him. Right before he sat down he glanced back behind him to see everyone staring at him with a look of confusion on their faces. They think that I'm a joke. I will prove them wrong. He sat down, ignoring the people next to him with their jaws dropped, and just looked at Katie. She was looking around the room smirking at everyone's faces. A few more stragglers walked in just before Katie's watch started beeping.

"All right, it's 8:30 now so we'll get started. My name is Katie Wood, I'm 36 years old. I'm a chaser and the captain of this team. I went to Hogwarts, I was in Gryffindor. I played chaser on the house team for 6 years. We won the Cup when I was in my fourth and seventh years. I'm married to an ex-professional Quidditch player, Oliver Wood. He played with me at Hogwarts and we have two kids, Logan and Chelsea, twelve and nine respectively. Now, this team needs some serious work. We lost every single game that we played last year and I will not do that again this year. So I don't care if you were on the team last year or not, you will be trying out again. Now I don't know if you heard about our seeker, but he has been seriously injured, idiot. So I'm looking for someone at least competant on a broomstick to fill his place. I know we don't get a ton of good players trying out because this team is so bad but I'm trying to change that. I'll take anyone who is actually good on a broomstick, no matter how old they are." She glared around the room and James felt that statement was particularly about him. "Alright, let's head out to the pitch."

The group stood up and walking out onto the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. Katie led them out to the bottom of the hoops. Alright, I want ten people in a group for ten laps around the pitch. Give the group in front of you about ten seconds before you go. I'll take the first group."

James immediately rushed forward to be in her group. He wasn't sure if any other the other people there would let him in their group, but he knew Katie wouldn't stand for it. She smiled at him when he joined her.

Once everyone was in a group they took off flying. They weren't going very fast, but it was enough to eliminate an entire group. They could barely stay on their brooms. Katie was holding her clipboard and was scratching off numbers, barely paying attention to where she was going. James was flying next to her and he could hear muttering about the "stupid professional teams that paid more and took her players". The season was at the same time so players had to choose. Because the British were so bad, everyone played professionally instead and the ministry docked the national pay.

They landed after their laps and she sent eleven of fifty two hopefuls home. They then went through a conditioning routine that sent another seventeen packing. James was very in shape already so he had no problem with everything she had them doing. The other people were another story though.

Katie gave the remaining twenty four players a water break and started banging her head against the wall. James went over to her.

"Hey, at least the rest of us are decently athletic and can stay up on a broomstick. You have to take little victories." He smiled at her and she looked away from the wall to him.

"The only problem is that we need fourteen people to make it, so that we have a reserve team. That means we can only cut ten more people. I'd like to get rid of about fifteen right now because of attitude and I haven't even put people into positions." She glanced over at the others who were glaring at James talking to Katie.

"Well, let's get this over as quickly as we can then. Maybe we won't even need our lunch break." Katie smiled at James and led him back to the others.

She put them into positions and had them scrimmage a little bit. A few of the professors that were at the school in the summer came down to watch them play. James recognized McGonagall, Slughorn, and his Uncle Neville.

His team wasn't all that bad. He had Katie on his team so they actually scored, but the other chasers were pretty much worthless. There were two chasers on the other team who looked at least decent. The other seeker was just following James around. James knew that if he let this idiot catch the snitch before him, no relationship with the captain would let him on the team. The only other seeker left was a complete idiot.

James searched the pitch for a good twenty minutes before he saw it over by the teachers. He pushed his Firebolt as fast as it could go. The other seeker was trailing way behind him. He saw the teachers quickly get out of the way as he flew right through where their heads had been and caught the snitch. James stopped and spun around to see the people on his team cheering for him.

They made their way back to the ground and Katie told them she had enough information to make a decision and went back into the captain's office to make up the teams while they packed up their stuff.

"Wow, that was some seriously amazing bit of flying!"

"How long have you been playing?"

"Is your last name Potter?"

"Are you actually eleven?"

The other players started harassing him with questions as soon as Katie left. All of the sudden, he was this amazing flyer and he was sure to make it. They all were clearly impressed and actually talked to them now. Some of them, the ones that hadn't glared at him all day, we're actually nice and friendly. There were two girls and a guy that were very kind to him. He couldn't remember seeing them play but he hoped they made the team so he had more than just Katie to talk to.

Katie came back out fifteen minutes later with the lists. "Okay, there is the starting team of seven and a full reserve team of seven. I'm very sorry to those of you that didn't make it. Keep practicing and come back next year." She stuck the list on one of the lockers and stepped back to let everyone look at it. Luckily, it was right next to James so he got to look at it first.

Starting lineup:

Keeper: Amy Kirken

Chasers: Katie Bell

Cameron Groves

Hannah Costal

Seeker: James Potter

Beaters: Mark Clara

Owen Clara

James didn't even bother looking at the other list. He didn't care who was on the reserve team because he was on the starting team. He tried his best to contain his excitement, but it wasn't working to well, so he went into Katie's office and shut the door. He, very silently, jumped around and danced like crazy. His dreams had come true.


End file.
